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Has Halloween gone too far?

Things have come a long way from the innocent pumpkin lanterns of old. I overheard this in a shop yesterday "Yes those are the last of the severed feet candies we have in stock" You can also buy eyeballs and imitation blood to smear on your door!

What are we teaching our children? Are we desensitising them to violence and gore? Is it a good thing to get them to knock on doors Trick or Treating, in effect demanding rewards with an implied threat?

Things have come a long way from the innocent pumpkin lanterns of old. I overheard this in a shop yesterday "Yes those are the last of the severed feet candies we have in stock" You can also buy eyeballs and imitation blood to smear on your door!

What are we teaching our children? Are we desensitising them to violence and gore? Is it a good thing to get them to knock on doors Trick or Treating, in effect demanding rewards with an implied threat?

We reap what we sow and I fear we're sowing some poisonous seeds.

severed feet candy? yuk!

my children have taken part in trick or treating, in our neighbourhood there is a rule that you only knock on doors of people who show they are willing to particpate by placing pumpkins or other decoration in the front gardens, and to be honest most of those are families from the locals schools! most of the children are with adults and they are taught to be respectful.

Children have grown up through War, Disease, and Violence of every kind .. if they haven't been desensitized yet then I doubt some candy and a can of fake blood is going to do it. Kids, and the community as a whole, have an ever developing taste in what is Creepy, Scary, or Fun.

A kid in the 1910 may have gotten a thrill out of a Bedsheet hanging from someones tree, but in 2010 with all the technologies and special effects they are exposed to -- its gonna take more than that.

I wouldn't mind taking my child to a house with blood splattered on the door and what ever -- its Halloween -- its make believe. Halloween is probably one of the most Policed and Safest nights of the year

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." ~Charles Dickens

Think about TV shows like CSI & Bones. When I was a kid, the graphic stuff in those shows would have only been seen in Rated-R movies!! I agree that we have become more desensitized, but I also have no idea what to do about it. All we do is save our TV watching for when the boys go to bed. It's just a matter of time though, and I won't be able to stop it.

Things have come a long way from the innocent pumpkin lanterns of old. I overheard this in a shop yesterday "Yes those are the last of the severed feet candies we have in stock" You can also buy eyeballs and imitation blood to smear on your door!

What are we teaching our children? Are we desensitising them to violence and gore? Is it a good thing to get them to knock on doors Trick or Treating, in effect demanding rewards with an implied threat?

We reap what we sow and I fear we're sowing some poisonous seeds.

While I might agree that a vast majority of Halloween merchandise is pure trash, I would also accuse Christmas of being not that much better.

For instance, have you (and I mean you specifically The Mole) seen the animated inflatable of Santa Claus protruding his head from an out house, complete with toilet paper on the out side? Look no further than your local Wal*Mart or Lowes. Do you have one of those in your front yard? Santa, relieving himself with a smile? How do your children feel about that?

Trash is every where, during every season, in every corner of the United States. As long as we ask China to make it cheap, cheap Americans will buy it.

Hi I have just joined and have been reading through some of the posts about Halloween and I live in England where it isn't very popular I didn't get many trick or treaters I rarely do. I do love Halloween but for a very different reason one that I am not too comfortable sharing right now, but I digress nope it hasn't gone too far, but Christmas definitely has!